This invention relates to equipment that can be used in the drilling and completion of boreholes in an underground formation and in the production of fluids from such wells.
Fluids such as oil, natural gas and water are obtained from a subterranean geologic formation (a xe2x80x9creservoirxe2x80x9d) by drilling a well that penetrates the fluid-bearing formation. Once the well has been drilled to a certain depth the borehole wall is supported to prevent collapse.
In many applications, it is desirable to isolate portions of the wellbore. Typically, one or more packers are deployed within the casing string and moved to a desired location within the wellbore. The packer is expanded at the desired location to form a boundary to fluid flow from one region of the wellbore to another. Often, packers are deployed with other tubulars to isolate desired regions of the annulus formed around the tubular.
It would be desirable to have a simple, functional wellbore isolation device able to function as a packer and/or a variety of other types of isolation devices.
In one aspect of the present invention, a technique is provided for isolating regions of a wellbore from unwanted fluid flow. The technique utilizes an expandable member that may be deployed at a desired location in a wellbore and then expanded outwardly. According to one aspect of the invention, the expandable device is utilized as a packer.